


Luna

by iniquiticity



Category: Baseball RPF, Sports RPF
Genre: M/M, New York Yankees
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-08
Updated: 2015-05-08
Packaged: 2018-03-29 13:51:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3898717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iniquiticity/pseuds/iniquiticity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being in orbit is the best thing that's ever happened to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Luna

Derek calls sometimes. 

Alex feels a little pathetic for always picking up on the first ring, probably too eager to hear about Derek’s day. Derek talks about nothing, like he always has. His website is going well. He talks about the people he calls about it. He talks about his girlfriend, the model. He talks about mundane life without baseball that Alex wishes he wouldn’t discuss because it’s too near to him. 

But he wouldn’t tell Derek what to talk about, because now more than ever it seems like Derek is the sun he revolves around. It’s not bad, helpless in orbit. It’s better than it ever was being his own planet, in between poisoning his rivers with drugs and nuking his forests with bombs of bad company. With Derek’s hold on him, the slow rotation, he no longer has to worry about what those mists of whispers mean (‘be the best,’ they say, ‘but not _the best_ , they mean,’) or the darkness of space, the lack of anything. The lack of baseball. 

If Derek’s sun is too hot, there is nothing he can do about it. He can only let his forests burn and his rivers dry up. 

But Derek always cools, curious, asking about his day. Derek tells the media he doesn’t watch baseball - but for the first time, Alex is in on the joke. 

And you know what, it’s nice to be in on the joke.

Alex knows Derek watches becuase Derek asks about particular pitches, locations, how he hit the ball, how he felt. Derek asks about CC’s pitches, about a catch by Gardner, this and that. They’re questions only people interested in baseball asks. It’s funny that Alex believed Derek when he said he was walking away from baseball. But how could you not take at face value something that glowed so brightly? 

But talking to Derek about baseball for hours is like the touch of life-giving sunlight. It reminds him of beaches and clear oceans and vibrant jungles. It feels like cheery May sunshowers and crunching autumn leaves. 

Derek is busy, so usually Derek hangs up after an hour or two of talking about his life and baseball. Alex usually tries for more, as subtly as he can - bringing up some other at-bat he struggled with (because Derek has the skill to chastise and advise him all at once, all nourishing and burning sunlight), or talking about their upcoming schedule, or about being the designated hitter. But Derek has a whole universe orbiting him that he has to pay attention to. Derek can’t shine on him forever. 

But that’s ok. Alex doesn’t mind. Alex is more than content to be a planet there. He’s done with drifting alone from the universe. He’ll take the imprisoning hold of an orbit if it means a few rays here and there. Alex will easily settle for a few hours of brilliant light and the accompanying setting sun, darkening his ravaged planet. 

It seems these days there are shoots there. A few little green plants sticking up from moist soil. A crystal river, if you hike far enough. Even a hardy animal or two, sticking out a tough life in the beginning of a new era. 

He thinks that maybe his sad little planet might have been too close to Derek’s boiling sun for a while. But now it’s just right, and everything’s just beginning to come alive again - with a little help from a brightly shining star.


End file.
